[Watch the video interview on YouTube here]
Film Courage: Find your voice? What do those words mean to you?
Brandon Loran Maxwell, Writer, Speaker, Prize Winning Essayist, Film Director, and Entrepreneur: I think everybody is different in terms of what their voice means to them.
I think finding your voice is being honest with whatever it is you’re trying to put forward. Let me think and rephrase that a bit. I think finding your voice means being honest in your artwork, whether it’s a film, whether it’s something you’re writing. If you’re doing it from the heart and something that you truly love, then it’s probably coming from your own voice.
I think that people have the tendency to lose their own voices when they start doing things for other people or they start worrying what other people think.
For me that’s what finding my own voice is.
Film Courage: How have writing articles and essays helped you find your voice?
Brandon: I started as an opinion writer and an essayist by trade, that’s how I made my living for the last 20 years. Part of being an opinion writer is giving your opinion which means you have to be upfront and honest about what your opinion is.
Part of being an essayist is writing from your personal experiences. I’ve always felt comfortable with sharing my experiences and sharing my voice. I think the important part if you’re going to do that is how you present it.
You can share opinions and you can share your personal experiences but you should try to get along with other people and be respectful to other people in doing those things.
Film Courage: How does one do that in this day and age, especially on social media, when if you’re for one camp or the other now you’re in enemy territory?
Brandon: It’s rough on social media. Sometimes it is very divisive. People have the tendency to kind of go at it and sometimes no matter what you say, you can say something like I hope everybody has a good day and somebody is going to be upset. It’s important to not let those things get to you down, don’t take them personal.
My experience has been social media is different from real life. In real life I get…(Watch the video interview on YouTube here).
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About:
Brandon Loran Maxwell is a writer, speaker, prize winning essayist, film director, and entrepreneur. His writings and commentary have appeared at The Hill, Salon, Townhall, The Washington Examiner, The Oregonian, and The Foundation For Economic Education, among others. In 2022, his writings were cited at the U.S. Supreme Court (United States Of America vs. Helaman Hansen). In addition, Brandon regularly speaks on a variety of social topics, and has been cited or profiled by outlets such as The Los Angeles Times, Vox, NPR, The Washington Post, The Blaze, and The Oregonian. His personal essay “Notes From An American Prisoner” was awarded a Writer’s Digest prize in 2014, and his one-act play “Petal By Petal” about drug and alcohol addiction was performed at The Little Theater in 2009. He holds a B.S. in political science and resides on the West Coast.
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